


Keep Your Paws Out Of My Chocolate

by ermengarde



Category: Leverage
Genre: Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-31
Updated: 2009-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:13:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ermengarde/pseuds/ermengarde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot's been persuaded into making things that smell like Christmas and Hardison's a sneaky ingredients thief. Or, well, a not sneaky in the least ingredients thief, but it's still really <i>annoying</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep Your Paws Out Of My Chocolate

Hardison was sitting at the kitchen counter, _again_ , making doe-eyes at the bowl of chocolate Eliot was melting for his pfeffernüsse. He really didn't know how he'd been talked into making the spicy little cakes, but Nate had been involved and Parker had said something about not knowing what Christmas smelled like and Eliot _absolutely didn't_ feel sorry for her, but he'd spent the best part of the last two days in Nate's kitchen, baking and keeping Hardison out of the mixing bowls until after he was done.

It was like having a child.

A child he had no qualms about threatening with a meat cleaver, sure, but still; a big, hyperactive, loud, sugar-crazy, _child_.

Who obviously thought he was blind.

"Get your paws _out_ of that," Eliot growled, "unless you plan on getting one of those fancy sticks you attach to your head to type with?"

Hardison paused, but didn't move his hand back. He looked at Eliot with much the same expression he wore when Parker cut off his air supply in hand to hand training.

"When I cut off your meddling fingers." Eliot bit out. It didn't have quite the desired menacing affect he was aiming at, and Hardison stuck his finger into the molten chocolate and wiped it on the end of Eliot's nose.

“Meddling fingers! Oh man…” Hardison spluttered.

No amount of glaring stopped Hardison's stupid, braying, laugh. Eliot continued glaring until Hardison ran out of breath, instead.

"Grandma always used to keep an extra bowl for me, you know? To keep me distracted..."

"You ain't a kid anymore; you should be able to keep yourself occupied without me having to fend you off every five minutes."

"Maybe I'd like it better if _you_ kept me occupied?" Hardison leered at him, and yeah, okay, they'd knocked boots a coupla times, but that was all about scratching an itch and post combat adrenaline and nothing about being all up in his space messing with his cooking.

"Okay, fine." Eliot grabbed the chocolate pan off of the stove and set it on the granite tile he'd been planning to keep cool to roll pie crust out on, later, pulled off his bandana and marched out of the kitchen. "Coming?"

Hardison smirked. "I hope so."

 

 

 

 

It was real, real easy to persuade Hardison to try a little light bondage in Nate's spare room. Well, it was real easy to tie him up, what with Hardison being a bit slow at the brawling stuff, and then use heated glances and gentle stroking and rubbing to persuade him to let Eliot tie up the other hand.

He just wished he'd kept his bandana on so he could have used it to gag Hardison, because the yelling was a little distracting. Eliot smiled, served him right for causing the chocolate to seize.

 

 

 

The pfeffernüsse looked great as he set them out on the cooling rack, and they'd go great with everything else he'd made once they’d had a coupla days to soften and for the flavor to settle and deepen. Parker slid up beside him and put her head on his shoulder. It was downright creepy that she could move that silently.

She stretched out her hand and looked at him beseechingly.

"Can I..."

"Not these ones, they need to mature a little."

Parker made her eyes very big and stuck out her bottom lip at him. “But…”

"I have other ones," he sighed. "You go get Hardison and I'll get them out for you”.

"Awesome!" Parker skipped off without asking where Hardison was and Eliot just shook his head. She was another one, just like a kid. An emotionally unbalanced, incredibly disturbed kid, but still; with the skipping and the lack of impulse control. And the emotional manipulation, ha! A kid.

There was a crash from upstairs and Parker _giggled_. "Ooooh! You got me a _present!_."

"Nooo, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't, no." Hardison whined then dissolved into squeaks.

"Eliot," Parker shouted, "he's really ticklish, you're awesome!"

Eliot snorted quietly to himself and set about cleaning off the kitchen surfaces and getting a plate of pfeffernüsse together. When the children finished playing they'd be hungry.


End file.
